According to the Letter to the Ephesians, Christ brings peace, gathers together those who were separated, breaks down divisions, and reconciles people with one another and with God. And he does all this through his death, which put hatred to death. What can you do to create unity with and among those around you—to make “one new person in place of the two”—even if this effort requires some sacrifice?

Sometimes the most important things are the least dramatic. Baptism, for most Catholics, happens at an age when we can scarcely appreciate it, yet it’s the start of our relationship with the community of faith that shapes every aspect of our lives as Christians.

In her Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech given in Oslo in June 2012, 21 years after it was awarded, Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi said of the award, “Often during my days of house arrest it felt as though I were no longer a part of the real world. . . .

Brought together by Christ our good shepherd, let us ask the Lord for pardon and guidance.

In Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near. Throughout the readings for this weekend we hear of God’s bringing together and caring for God’s people. God would regather the people whom their incompetent leaders had allowed to go into exile, Jeremiah said, and “bring them back to their meadow” where they “shall dwell in security.”

A grade-school kid spent the whole of a summer playing school in the neighborhood. Didn’t she get enough of the classroom during the academic year? The girl insisted it wasn’t for herself that she maintained her street-corner “classroom.” She was teaching younger children down the street how to read.

I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. —John 10:11